In February 1990, as Mike Washo stepped in as point man for Mayor Jim Connors' mission to ensure the Mall at Steamtown's construction, the prospects of success looked worse than some of the buildings the mall eventually replaced.

"First of all, we had to let the people know that for all intents and purposes, the mall was dead," Mr. Connors said Wednesday. "It was barely hanging on when I took office."

Barely hanging on because five years after it was first proposed, it was missing quite a few key details like:

- Control of all the property necessary to build it.

- Settlement of lawsuits by four of the 40 or so mall-targeted property owners who wanted more money to sell their properties.

- The little matter of having all the actual money necessary to pay for construction of what was then only an $85 million project. (It ballooned to $101 million later.)

"The mall is in the final stretch in the race and we're not in the lead," Mr. Washo said skeptically in an April 1990 Scranton Times story.

Privately, he told himself to get religion.

"I thought, one, I don't think I can make this situation any more desperate," Mr. Washo said Wednesday. "Two, I said to myself, if Gov. (Robert) Casey is behind this project, if Congressman (Joseph) McDade is behind this project and if Gov. (Bill) Scranton has already called me asking me what he could do for the project, I better become a believer."

Believing was one thing, realizing totally another. Mr. Washo found a project plagued by a lack of trust and communication between the city and the businessmen whose properties the city wanted. For some, selling out for the mall was the end of their businesses. For others, it meant moving into new quarters and all the work that required.

"Property owners were scared," Mr. Washo said. He empathized, so he immediately began hosting weekly meetings to keep them informed of the latest developments.

He also found that the city had not always complied with the federal Uniform Relocation Act, a point mentioned by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in a scathing report accusing the city of "gross violations" of federal law just a month before Mr. Connors took office.

Mr. Washo set about getting things on track with the help of a Scranton Redevelopment Authority lawyer named Boyd Hughes, now the solicitor to the city council.

Mr. Hughes said the SRA developed a redevelopment plan that encompassed the mall area, allowing the city to condemn and acquire properties through eminent domain. He spent the better part of three years putting together the land deals necessary, which included plenty of time in court fighting off challenges to city appraisals of properties' value.

"Boyd Hughes went to court 11 times on that project and won in court every single time," Mr. Connors said.

By mid-1990, the roadblocks to the mall's construction were less about property acquisition than nailing down the money to get it done.

Conventional banks doubted. Northeastern Bank, now PNC Bank, was worried simply about the viability of the one of the proposed mall's anchors, the Globe Store, and was threatening to foreclose on the Globe's loan, Mr. Washo said.

(Three months after the mall opened, the Globe Store announced its closing.)

Mr. Washo theorizes banks were scared off by the Globe's problems, the lack of commitments by major restaurants to the mall and the presence of an unknown anchor such as Montgomery Ward, a department store chain itself headed for bankruptcy.

It took Mr. Casey's involvement - he convinced a union and a state pension system to put up the construction money and long-term financing - to get the deal done. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' pension fund put up $72.7 million to pay for the construction and the Public School Employees' Retirement System provided the long-term financing.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, the late governor's son, said his father's passion for the project showed when he cut the ribbon at the mall's opening two months before he officially returned to office after a historic heart and liver transplant.

"He would have crawled to get to that ribbon-cutting," Mr. Casey said.

Sens. Arlen Specter and John Heinz and Mr. McDade had obtained a critical $13 million federal Urban Development Action Grant that at one point was also threatened. HUD officials wanted to see progress, during a meeting with the chief UDAG program official, the official's respect for Mr. McDade was clear, Mr. Washo said.

"Thank God, we had people in powerful positions that cared about us," Mr. Connors said.

Over the years, predictions of opening dates came and went, but in February 1991, Mr. Connors got it right.

"I'm more convinced than ever that we will be shopping in the mall for Christmas of 1993," he said.

Three months after he said it, the city had all the signed mall documents necessary to make it happen.

Less than a year later, on April 5, 1992, a demolition contractor imploded the old buildings and 17 months later the mall opened.

"The construction was much quicker than the run-up to the construction," Mr. Washo said. "We had good architects and the union contractors really outdid themselves. They took great pride in that."

When it opened, much credit went to Mr. Casey, Mr. McDade and Mr. Washo. Mr. Washo, who won't blow his own horn but doesn't dispute the importance of the others, said Mr. Connors gets overlooked.

"Jim Connors played an interesting role in all of this and he really hasn't gotten his due on this. He wanted this project, he wanted it badly and he wasn't going to let (department store magnate Al Boscov) get away," Mr. Washo said.

Mr. Connors said the mall's construction was his top priority from the day he took office.

"Everything else was besides the point. People wanted the mall, they wanted the downtown revitalized," he said.

Of course, everyone involved said, Mr. Boscov deserves the most credit for never walking away, despite all the travails.

In retrospect, Mr. Washo said, the difficulties of getting the mall built served as a harbinger of its present struggles. Now, with many believing the mall's days numbered, Mr. Hughes said he isn't ready to believe it himself.

"Lackawanna Avenue, what would it be if it weren't for the mall?" he said. (The former) Oppenheim's building would be vacant, (the former) Samter's (clothing store building) would be vacant.

"You wouldn't have (the former) Southern Union (building).

"The thing is this: never give up on Al Boscov. You can quote me on that one. ... Never give up on the guy."

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk @timesshamrock.com

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